The Bulgarian, now back at Villa Park as a member of manager Tim Sherwood’s coaching team, brought smiles to the faces of patients during a surprise visit.

He also handed over a cheque for £20,000 on behalf of the Stiliyan Petrov Foundation with his wife and co-founder Paulina, for research into leukaemia and blood cancers.

The 35-year-old, whose battle with leukaemia led him to retire from club and international football, pledged the money to help find a cure for the devastating cancer.

Father-of-two Petrov said: “As much as I love meeting patients because I went through something like that, I don’t want to see kids going through something like that because I know it’s hard for them and their parents.

“It would be good if more donate money, the main thing is finding a cure.

“It’s a very strong treatment with a lot of side affects.

“If you find a cure, we wouldn’t have this situation. Kids should have the right to enjoy their childhood and not go through something like this.”

Paulina said: “After being by Stiliyan’s side throughout his treatment, and being a mother myself, I couldn’t help but think how dreadful it must be for children going through this terrible illness - how confused and scared they must be and how devastating it is for the parents.

“Birmingham Children’s Hospital is committed to helping young people and their families through these horrendous times, supporting and caring for both the child and their parents.”

Dr Francis Mussai, clinical senior lecturer in paediatric oncology, said: “The funding will allow us to study the mechanisms of how childhood and adult leukaemia cells grow and support the development of new drugs to attack leukaemia cells.

“Mr Petrov’s personal battle with leukaemia and our patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital are an on-going inspiration to our research team.”

Cancer patient Logan Smith, aged eight, from Quinton, beamed as he chatted to the former footballer.

He said: “It was brilliant meeting Stiliyan.

“I like watching football because I always want to see if anybody scores a goal. I play at school.”

Petrov launched the Foundation in 2013 to “revolutionise the way leukaemia and cancer were treated”.

It seeks to develop a safer, more practical and effective process for treatment, relapses and prevention of the illnesses.